Class L electrical power connectors are well known in the art and are standard power connectors that have been in use for at least 50 years. These types of connectors are designed to Military Specification MIL-DTL-22992 to be suitable for heavy duty use in industrial and military applications. Typically, Class L connectors are configured with different shell sizes ranging from 28 to 52 and they are configured to operate with conductor sizes that range from size 6 to 4/0 AWG and are used to operate with electrical currents ranging from 40 to 200 amperes. Because these connectors are for heavy duty uses and large power applications, it is important, from a safety and operational perspective, that the connector has a suitable strain relief and that the shell maintains continuity to the ground pin(s) (this is also a requirement of the MIL-SPEC). In current Class L connectors this is accomplished by using an aluminum back shell and a wire mesh Kellems grip. The continuity is achieved by bonding the ground pin(s) together in the front shell of the connector via a metal ring. The back shell is screwed and tightened to the front shell and the metal of the back shell bonds to a metal ground ring. This creates continuity between the entire connector body and the ground pin(s). One view of a prior art Class L connector is shown in FIG. 1.
Unfortunately, the aluminum back shell and Kellems grip used with current Class L connectors have several undesirable characteristics. First, because the metal body of the connector is exposed to the environment, these connectors can freeze making handling difficult. Second, because the aluminum back shell used to create ground continuity is large, the connectors are large, bulky and non-ergonomic. Third, because these connectors are used in heavy duty applications and the Kellems grip is exposed to the environment, the Kellems grip tends to fray overtime causing individual wires of the wire mesh to stick out of the grip. Thus, when a user grabs the grip, the frayed wires tend to cut the hand of the user.